May 10-12

We'll get the good news out first: for the first time in franchise history the Reading Royals will play for the ECHL championship. The boys punched their ticket to the finals with wins in Cincinnati on Friday and Saturday to take the series four games to one. On Friday the Royals took a 2-0 lead before most of the Cincinnati fans were even in their seats but the Cyclones rallied to tie it in the third period. In the closing moments of regulation time the Royals received a power-play opportunity, Yannick Tifu scored with eleven seconds left on the clock for a dramatic 3-2 win. On Saturday the Royals once again got out to a 2-0 lead, Cincinnati got one back before T.J. Syner scored the clincher as the boys closed it out with a 3-1 victory. As champions of the Eastern Conference the Royals will meet the Western champion in the finals, that opponent was determined on Saturday night in Stockton, California as the hometown Thunder defeated the Idaho Steelheads in the West finals. Stockton has been in the ECHL since 2005, the championship series will mark their first-ever appearance at the Sovereign Center. The first two games are Saturday the 18th and Sunday the 19th with the next three in Stockton, a possible game #6 would be back at the SC on Tuesday the 28th. The Thunder was the fourth seed in the West playoff bracket, along the way they eliminated the top seed so their presence in the finals is well-deserved. Since the clubs did not meet during the regular season it's almost impossible to handicap this series, we'll just drop the puck on Saturday and hope for the best. The weekend was otherwise uneventful outside of a lunch visit with Jenny on Saturday morning. The Barnstormers were at home over the weekend but I elected to stay in and follow the hockey games, had I been at the ballpark I would have been completely out of touch with the Royals and that was someplace I did not want to be. It turned out to be a smart move as thunderstorms hit the area and washed out Friday's game, they played a doubleheader on Saturday that started late because of another storm. It turned windy and cooler on Sunday, that trend is expected to continue through the early part of the new week. Take care, thanks for reading.